RE: New Clinton email controversy
November 2, 2016 at 2:38 pm
(This post was last modified: November 2, 2016 at 2:39 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
(November 2, 2016 at 1:21 pm)Alasdair Ham Wrote: I think it's completely irrelevant whether it's part of the woman or not.If so, then the argument that abortion should be permitted on the basis of a fetus being "her body" is also irrelevant. You cannot have it both ways.
(November 2, 2016 at 1:21 pm)Alasdair Ham Wrote: The question is... if the fetus is aborted does it suffer and even if it does suffer would the mother always suffer more than the fetus if she was not allowed an abortion when she wanted one? I think so yes.... but if the mother does want to abort the fetus she should be allowed to because she'd suffer a lot more than a fetus if she was prevented from doing so.
Making a utilitarian argument with suffering as the sole criteria is problematic. If you apply that reasoning to cases other than abortion the flaw becomes immediately apparent. If suffering is the only criteria then it would be morally permissible for one person to benefit from causing the quick and painless death of another, regardless of age or circumstances. Secondly you have applied a double standard. For the fetus, you define suffering only in terms of physical pain and not loss of potential goods. But for the mother, you define suffering in terms of lost opportunities and/or incurring future obligations.